February 20 in Cardinals History

Cardinals History

1953– Pledging not to move the team from St. Louis, beer baron August A. Busch convinces the Board of Directors of Anheuser-Busch to purchase the Cardinals for $3.75 million.

1987– The St. Louis Cardinals signed Ivan de Jesus as a free agent.

Birthdays

Pug Bennett was a second baseman in Major League Baseball. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1906-1907 and had a career .248 average with one home run and 55 RBI’s

Bill Reeder (February 20, 1922 – March 12, 2001) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1949 and had a 1-1 record with a 5.08 ERA.

Sal Yvars (February 20, 1924 – December 10, 2008) was a baseball catcher that played all or part of eight seasons in Major League Baseball, with the New York Giants from 1947 to 1953 and the St. Louis Cardinals from 1953 to 1954.. He made his major league debut on September 27, 1947 in the only game he played that season for the Giants.His lone hit of the season came off of Schoolboy Rowe, a single to left field. In 1948, Yvars played in 15 games and had a batting average of .211. He played three games in 1949 and nine in 1950 for the Giants. During the 1951 New York Giants season, Yvars was the backup catcher behind Wes Westrum, and played in 25 games, hitting .317 during the season. He is best remembered as the player on the New York Giants who relayed stolen signals to his teammates awaiting in the batters box during the 1951 pennant-winning season.
After playing for the Giants, Yvars played for two more seasons with the Cardinals.In his career he hit .244 with 10 home runs and 42 runs batted in.